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Dr. John A. Hartwell was
born on September 27, 1869, in Deckerstown, New Jersey. His father was
headmaster of a private school which seemed to insure a bright and perhaps easy
future for his four children. The difficulty began when his mother died during
John Hartwell's 12th year and was compounded by his father's death one year
later. A closely knit family gathered its forces and converted the school to a
boarding house. Although it eked out an existence, it hardly provided much
assurance for a boy with a burning desire to pursue a medical career. Because
of his athletic record in secondary school, he was placed on the training table
when he matriculated at Yale in 1885. While this met eating expenses, he found
it necessary to do other work in order to defray the other costs of education.
Since life had been, from an early age, intensely competitive, it is no
accident that he followed this pattern. He was stroke in the Yale crew that
beat Harvard four times in a row. The fabled "Pudge" Heffelfinger had Hart-well
at left end and Hinkey at right end on the undefeated and untied Yale football
team of 1891. Walter Camp selected both Hartwell and Hinkey for All-American
that year, his senior year in medical school. It is amazing to know that in these
seven years he managed to collect a Ph.D., in 1889,. and an M.D., in 1892, from
Yale University. The latter was Cum Laude and first in his class. Other
undergraduate honors were innumerable. For the next two years, he did research
at the College of Physicians and Surgeons. Then from 1894 to 1897, he served on
the Surgical house staff of Presbyterian Hospital, afterwards joining the
visiting surgical staff for five years. In 1904, he was appointed assistant
professor of physiology at Cornell University Medical College where he became
Assistant Professor of Surgery in 1907. He was by nature a leader, and pursued
his work in surgery mainly in the wards at Bellevue, to which he was first
appointed in 1903. This work drew his first allegiance and he progressed
through the ranks to become Director of the Second (Cornell) Surgical Division
in 1914, in which capacity he continued until 1928 when he was elevated to
consultant. From 1910 to 1938, he was Professor of Clinical Surgery at Cornell.
In January, 1918, he was
commissioned a Major in the Medical Corps of the United States Army. After some
Stateside duty, he joined the H.E.F. in France and worked largely in Evacuation
and Field Hospitals.
As his active surgical career drew to a close, he transferred his energies
to new fields. Beginning in 1928, he served two terms as President of the
Academy of Medicine and then, from 1934, he was its director until his death in
1940.
Dr. Hartwell was a tireless worker in many fields with an intensely
competitive spirit. At the New York Academy of Medicine, the bound volumes of
his work contain 133 publications on more subjects than a surgeon might express
even an opinion on today. Many of these dealt with empyema, lung abscess and
gangrene, stricture of the esophagus and other thoracic problems. His opinions
as reported have perhaps received inadequate recognition since he did not
pursue thoracic work as avidly as others. Yet his views were forward-looking.
At this early stage, he had already devised an easy method of direct
transfusion but also recognized the deficits and the need for further
improvement. He was a devoted teacher, yet still managed to find time for his
other efforts. He helped establish the Clinic at Cornell for marginal income
patients. He vigorously defended Birth Control Clinics against severe
criticism. He stopped cold the effort to set up certain control clinics based
largely on quackery. He fought and helped defeat the anti-vivisection
legislation.
Dr. Hartwell died on November 11, 1940 at the age of 71.
Dr. John A. Hartwell
